The concept and a working model of this technology was invented and fitted to a Rover SD1 in England by British inventor Nick Parish in 1988. Patent application No 8911571.1 was made in 1989. The first production lane departure warning system in Europe was developed by the
United States company Iteris for
Mercedes Actros commercial trucks. The system debuted in 2000, and is now available on many new cars, SUVs, and trucks. In 2002, the Iteris system became available on
Freightliner Trucks' North American vehicles. In both these systems, the driver is warned of unintentional lane departures by an audible
rumble strip sound generated on the side of the vehicle drifting out of the lane. No warnings are generated if, before crossing the lane, an active turn signal is given by the driver.
2001 Nissan Motors began offering a lane-keeping support system on the
Cima 450XV Limited (F500) sold in Japan.
2002 Toyota introduced its lane monitoring system on models such as the
Caldina and
Alphard sold in Japan; this system warns the driver if it appears the vehicle is beginning to drift out of its lane.
2003 Honda launched its Lane Keep Assist System (LKAS) on the
Inspire. It provides up to 80% of steering torque to keep the car in its lane on the highway. It is also designed to make highway driving less cumbersome, by minimizing the driver's steering input. A camera, mounted at the top of the windshield just above the
rear-view mirror, scans the road ahead in a 40-degree radius, picking up the dotted white lines used to divide lane boundaries on the highway. The computer recognizes that the driver is "locked into" a particular lane, monitors how sharp a curve is, and uses factors such as yaw and vehicle speed to calculate the steering input required.
2004 In 2004, the first passenger-vehicle system available in North America was jointly developed by Iteris and
Valeo for Nissan on the
Infiniti FX and (in 2005) the
M vehicles. In this system, a camera (mounted in the overhead console above the mirror) monitors the lane markings on a roadway. A warning tone is triggered to alert the driver when the vehicle begins to drift over the markings. Also in 2004, Toyota added a lane keeping assist feature to the
Crown Majesta which can apply a small counter-steering force to aid in keeping the vehicle in its lane.
2005 Citroën became the first in Europe to offer LDWS on its 2005
C4 and
C5 models, and its
C6. This system uses infrared sensors to monitor lane markings on the road surface, and a vibration mechanism in the seat alerts the driver of deviations. If the
radar cruise control system is engaged, the Lane Keep function works to help reduce the driver's steering-input burden by providing steering torque; however, the driver must remain active or the system will deactivate.
2007 In 2007,
Audi began offering its Audi lane assist feature for the first time on the
Q7. This system, unlike the Japanese "assist" systems, will not intervene in actual driving; rather, it will vibrate the steering wheel if the vehicle appears to be exiting its lane. The LDW System in Audi is based on a forward-looking video-camera in its visible range, instead of the downward-looking infrared sensors in the Citroën. Also in 2007, Infiniti offered a newer version of its 2004 system, which it called the Lane Departure Prevention (LDP) system. This feature utilizes the vehicle
stability control system to help assist the driver maintain lane position by applying gentle brake pressure on the appropriate wheels.
2008 General Motors introduced Lane Departure Warning on its 2008 model-year
Cadillac STS,
DTS, and
Buick Lucerne models. The General Motors system warns the driver with an audible tone and a warning indicator on the dashboard.
BMW also introduced Lane Departure Warning on the
5 Series (E60) and
6 Series, using a vibrating steering wheel to warn the driver of unintended departures. In late 2013 BMW updated the system with Traffic Jam Assistant appearing first on the redesigned
BMW X5, this system works below .
Volvo introduced the lane departure warning system and the driver alert control on its 2008 model-year
S80, the
V70, and
XC70 executive cars. Volvo's lane departure warning system uses a camera to track road markings and sound an alarm when drivers depart their lane without signaling. The systems used by BMW, Volvo, and General Motors are based on core technology from
Mobileye.
2009 Mercedes-Benz began offering a Lane Keeping Assist function on the new
E-class. This system warns the driver (with a steering-wheel vibration) if it appears the vehicle is beginning to leave its lane. Another feature will automatically deactivate and reactivate if it ascertains the driver is intentionally leaving his lane (for instance, aggressively cornering). A newer version will use the braking system to assist in maintaining the vehicle's lane.
2010 Kia Motors offered the 2011 Cadenza premium sedan with an optional lane departure warning system (LDWS) in limited markets. This system uses a flashing dashboard icon and emits an audible warning when a white lane marking is being crossed, and emits a louder audible warning when a yellow-line marking is crossed. This system is canceled when a turn signal is operating, or by pressing a deactivation switch on the dashboard; it works by using an optical sensor on both sides of the car.
2011 Audi A7 introduces Audi active lane assist.
2012 Mobileye developed a system that detected
lane markings, and identified when a vehicle departed from its driving lane without the use of the turn signal.
2013 Mercedes began Distronic Plus with Steering Assist and Stop&Go Pilot on the redesigned S-class in 2013.
2014 Tesla Model S comes with advanced lane assistance systems with their 2014 release. It was also released with a speed assist feature where the front facing camera reads the traffic speed limits using the technology of
computer vision character recognition system, and then conveys it to the car. On roads where traffic signs are absent, it relies on the GPS data. When the car moves away from a lane at above , the system beeps and the steering wheel vibrate, alerting the driver of an unintended lane change. This happens during speed limit non-compliance as well. Fiat is launching its lane keep assist feature based on TRW's lane keeping assist system (also known as the haptic lane feedback system). This system integrates the lane-detection camera with TRW's electric power-steering system; when an unintended lane departure is detected (the turn signal is not engaged to indicate the driver's desire to change lanes), the electric power-steering system will introduce a gentle torque that will help guide the driver back toward the center of the lane. Introduced on the Lancia Delta in 2008, this system earned the Italian Automotive Technical Association's Best Automotive Innovation of the Year Award for 2008.
Peugeot introduced the same system as Citroën in its new
308. Lane departure warning systems combine prevention with risk reports in the transportation industry. Viewnyx applies video-based technology to assist fleets in lowering their driving liability costs. By providing safety managers with driver- and fleet-risk assessment reports and tools, it facilitates proactive coaching and training to eliminate high-risk behaviors. The Lookout Solution is used by North American fleets, and there is research on implementing a lane departure warning system via a mobile phone.
2017 An Insurance Institute for Highway Safety raised concern that drivers may be less vigilant when relying on automated safety systems or become distracted by dashboard displays that monitor how the systems are performing. Two separate studies found that lane-keeping systems and blind spot monitoring systems had lower crash rates than the same vehicles without the systems. Police crash data from 25 states between 2009 and 2015 for vehicle models where the systems were sold as optional reduced rates of single-vehicle, sideswipe, and head-on crashes by 11 percent, and injuries in such crashes by 21 percent. The sample size was not large enough to control for demographic and other variables. == Lane keeping and next technologies ==